Page:Between Two Loves.djvu/264

Rh Aske was carried into the court on the day of the trial, he positively asserted that only two men attacked him. He said he had noticed these two as they climbed the wall; he described their dress, and without hesitation selected the guilty men. And in Steve Benson's behalf he spoke so warmly that his full and honorable acquittal was the immediate result of the legal investigation.

But there was a social tribunal which Steve could not so easily satisfy. He returned home with a determination to do his duty, to be industrious at his loom and affectionate to his family. On the morning when he went back to the mill, Sarah walked by his side, and Jonathan took care, as soon as all the hands were at work, to stop at Steve's loom, and to talk to him with marked interest and kindness concerning the piece he was setting up. Steve Benson, however, had not many friends among his own class. A drunken, noisy scamp who beat his wife and fought the constables they could have understood and felt some sympathy for; but a man like Steve, who spent days hunting a queer flower, or rambling on the sea-sands after weeds and shells, and who filled his pockets like a